A governance analyst, Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has said that any review of the 1992 constitution of Ghana, must rather focus on limiting the excessive powers enjoyed by the president.
This comes after the Constitutional Review Committee in Parliament tabled some recommendations to the house for review in the constitution.
Among other things, the committee suggested a payment of tax by presidents on their salaries and also capping the number of parliamentarians and ministers.
Speaking to Citi News, Prof Agyeman-Duah stated that the committee only scratched the surface of the problems of the 1992 constitution.
“These suggestions or recommendations barely scratched the surface of the problem that we have in our constitution. Imposing taxes on presidents’ salaries and monuments, capping MPs at 277 and cutting away excessive ministers to maybe 27 etc, are just scratching the surface.
“The crucial issue that we need to deal with is how we dissolve power to ensure that district assemblies become the focus of development in the country. The current constitution has placed so much power on the executive such that literally, every part of this country has to look up to the president for what they need.
“Even though the constitution has a chapter on decentralisation, no government in this republic has taken particular note of it. The only thing we have succeeded in doing is administrative decentralisation where we have created districts for administration in these areas and even then, the head of the district is appointed by the president,” he stated.